Lorraine takes aim at BBC over Lineker backlash

Lorraine has a pop at the BBC amid Gary Lineker row

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Last weekend, the BBC made the decision to remove Gary Lineker from Match of the Day, while the broadcaster discussed whether the football pundit had broken impartiality rules. The move came after Gary compared the government’s migrant policy to the rhetoric of Nazi Germany in a series of tweets. It has since been confirmed that the presenter will return to screens this weekend. Discussing the broadcaster’s decision, Lorraine Kelly took a swipe at BBC bosses when chatting with UK editor Paul Brand.

“Looks like they’re going to sort it,” Lorraine began as she fumed: “But for goodness sake, this could all get sorted out long ago.

Paul replied: “We think it all added up to one big own goal for the BBC because of the way that it ended up being handled.”

“Badly handled,” the host chipped in as her guest continued: “It was a difficult tweet for them to have to deal with and we know that they’re under huge scrutiny about impartiality at the BBC because of the licence fee etc.

“A lot of political pressure for all of that. So of course, they have to take these matters seriously. But it looked at the end of last week as though it was all dying down.

“And then they asked him to step back from the day and it all blew up again.”

“Didn’t they know this was going to happen?” Lorraine asked.

“Of course, the sports pundits aren’t going to go on. I mean they’re a tight-knit group and they take care of each other.

“You could see it coming from a mile off.”

Paul went on to defend Gary, explaining his tweet would have been different if it had come from a current affairs journalist.

The ITV host went on to point out: “What about Andrew Neil? He’s allowed to say what he wants.

“Lord Sugar, for goodness sake, he basically came out and told everyone to vote Tory.”

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“This I think, is the difficulty for the BBC is where you draw the line?” Paul added.

Taking aim at the BBC bosses, Lorraine said: “But also put the BBC under scrutiny and the chairman for the BBC under scrutiny.”

“They’ve actually brought loads… dreadful things on their own heads,” she added.

“I think they felt as though it was inconsistent within the BBC,” Paul went on to say.

Lorraine concluded: “I think they have to actually sit down and sort out the rules.

“And maybe Gary Lineker in his Twitter account, perhaps he could [say], ‘My views are my own’ because a lot of people do that, don’t they?

“Views are my own and then it’s kind of a get out of jail free card because they you can do that.

“But clearly they need to sort it out for Saturday because Match of the Day was weird on Saturday night, wasn’t it?”

Lorraine airs weekdays from 9am on ITV.

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